A place for UMA Staff and Cadets to practice their forum skills and provide commentary upon their training and game questions. Field army officers and commanders may also participate at their liberty.Benny Havens was the name of the tavern built beneath the Hudson River bluffs adjacent to the West Point Academy. (See: https://westpointcivilwar.wordpress.com ... allen-poe/)

My name is Thomas Margraf. I live in the western suburbs of Chicago with my wife and 2 sons where I am an electrical engineer for a manufacturer of heavy trucks.

I have been playing paper and computer wargames for nearly 25 years. While I have games from all historical eras, my main interest in gaming is the American Civil War. Some of my favorite paper game series include the Avalon Hill/MMP GCACW series and the Gamers' Civil War Brigade Series. For computer games, I started with the Talonsoft Battlefield games and later transitioned to the HPS/JTS campaign series.

Other than wargaming, in my spare time I enjoy reading about military history, watching sports, and building scale models.

Glad to have you with us, Cadet! I, too, enjoyed the Avalon Hill Civil War games, as well as the SPI Great Battles of the American Civil War series. Many of our club members cut their teeth on these and other such games. I'm sure that you'll find your time here to be enjoyable, challenging and satisfying. We've need of more good mid-westerners in the ACWGC Union Army Military Group.

General Jos. C. Meyer,Union Army Chief of StaffCommander, Army of the Shenandoah(2011-2014 UA GinC)